CLAE News
In January 2012 the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida ordered the forfeiture of the painting, the Cristo Portacroce Trascinato Da Un Manigoldo. On 4 November 2011 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) seized the painting belonging to the family of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe and which had been seized by the Nazis in 1941. See below for further details of the seizure and the statement of Pamela Marsh, the US State Attorney, that the Gentili heirs were the rightful owners of the paintng.
On 14 December 2011 the UK Government announced that the most important archive on the Holocaust would open in the UK. 50 million records on 17.5 million people currently held by the the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen, Germany, have been digitised, and will be accessible at The Wiener Library in London, the world's oldest Holocaust memorial institution. The Library already hosts the UK’s largest collection of personal papers and testimonies of refugees and Holocaust survivors. The ITS records come from concentration, slave labour and displaced persons’ camps from the Nazi-era, the Second World War and the ten years that followed. Anne Webber, Co-Chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, convened and chaired the UK Stakeholder Group which led the initiative to bring the archive to the UK. To read more, see below.
On 5 May 2011 the Commission announced its partnership and participation in the new International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi-Era Cultural Property at http://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/international-resources/. The Commission selected, described and provided the introduction to the records of the UK National Archives at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/looted-art.asp. For full details of this global initiative, see the press releases and news stories below.
Other News: The news stories below focus on the work of CLAE. A comprehensive archive of all news stories on Nazi looting and art restitution can be found at www.lootedart.com/news at the Central Registry of Information on Looted Cultural Property 1933-1945. The Central Registry was set up by CLAE to provide up-to-date information about research, publications, conferences, exhibitions and cases relating to the Nazi seizure of art and its recovery. To sign up for the Central Registry’s free newsletter, click subscribe.
- "Court Forfeits Cristo Portacroce After Italy Does Not File A Claim"
Cultural Heritage Lawyer, 5 January 2012 - "US seizes Romanino painting stolen from Gentili family by Nazis in World War ll"
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 4 November 2011
- "National Archives and Partners Launch New International Nazi-Era Records Internet Portal"
Artdaily, 5 May 2011
- "Britain may rewrite its laws in order to return Nazi-looted art"
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 14 July 2005
- "Polish heir wants looted cross returned to his museum in Poland"
International Herald Tribune, 22 August 2007
- "Irrwege eines Pissarro - Geschichte einer Restitution"
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 31 October 2009
Lost 16th century 'Portrait of a lady with a dog' returns to the Gemäldegalerie Berlin after 60 years
- "After four decades of struggle, heirs of Czech collector win back some art"
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 28 March 2003



